The caret Package

Max Kuhn

2017-09-04

1 Introduction

The caret package (short for _C_lassification _A_nd _RE_gression _T_raining) is a set of functions that attempt to streamline the process for creating predictive models. The package contains tools for:

data splitting

pre-processing

feature selection

model tuning using resampling

variable importance estimation

as well as other functionality.

There are many different modeling functions in R. Some have different syntax for model training and/or prediction. The package started off as a way to provide a uniform interface the functions themselves, as well as a way to standardize common tasks (such parameter tuning and variable importance).

The current release version can be found on CRAN and the project is hosted on github.